Disintegrating cartridge belt



J. M. EWART July 3, 1945.

DIS INTEGRATING CARTRIDGE BELT Filed Sept. 10, 1942 Patented July 3,1945 I 1,

Shoe Machinery Gorporation, ,FlemingtomN. 1., a eonporationptNew Jerseyappl cation September 10, miaseria tb rszssz ,3'Claims. (crass-35:)

invention relates to cartridge belts or the disintegrating type,intendedior feeding cartridge's to a machine gun or rifle, and more particularly to'an improved link for-such belts, especially adapted tofacilitate'the extension of a belt 'by the application of an additional"Section thereto without the necessity ofextracting acerti'idge f1oineither of the sectionsto 'be connected or finding and inserting anadditional cartridge to establish the connection. The standard cartridgebelt, used, for example, in 'a'calibe'r .50 machine un, comprises'a'se'ries "of identical metallic links adapted to be joined by thecartridgesjwhich constitute pintlesbetween the'link's. These links haverings in which the cartridges iit tightly enough to ensure their 're-'tention during ordinary handling and feeding of .the heltinto the gun"but not so tightly'as to prevent the mechanism "of the gun fromextracting a cartridge from the belt by withdrawing the cartridge in thedirection of its own l'on'gi'tudinal axis. When it is desired to connecta nw'section of belt to the trailing end of a belt from which most ofthe rounds have been fired, this is done by intei'en'gaging and aligningthe rings of'the endinost links of the two belt sections and rarei'ng'acartrid'ge into the said rings to effect the connection. operation,which consumes some time and requires a certain "amount of care anddeftl'iess, may haveto be performed in the ha's'te and "excitement ofcombat and is rendered di'fiicul't by the fact that the gunner isusually wearing heavy gloves, by which he is considerably handicapped inthe accurate handling of small objects.

It is the object or the present invention to pro-f vi'd'e a novelterminal link by the use of which two "cartridge belt sections can bealmost ins'ta'n-l taneously connected, by a single motion, without anydelicate manipulation and, consequently, with ease and certainty, eventhrough the gunner may be Wearing gloves or his fingers may'be numbedroad-1y, this object is accomplished by providing' at one end, at least,of each cartridge belt section 'a'lin'k which'iscapable of slidingdirectly into operative position upon the endmost 'carbelt to which'saidsection is tridge already in a to be connected.

' More'specifically, my novel terminal link may comprise a, central,single ring which is slotted adjacent to the bridge portion connectingit to a complemental pair of spaced apart rings at the opposite sidelike those of the standard link, the slot being sufiiciently wide topermit that part of the link which connects one got the aces or an pair"to thebri dgein 'a' similar link to pass through the slot "s'o'thatth'e'slo'tted ring can be slid length wise upon a, cartridge; over one{of the rings ofajpainalready upon the cartridge and iii'tofthe spacebetween the two rings of the pair, which is the positioniitnorrnallyoccupies in the belt; I

The material "of which such flinks areinade; although unite shit, isresilient and the slot is preferably s'o'ta'pered that,when the slottedring i pushed overfthe'above-inention'ed connecting art of the linkalreadyupon the cartridge, it

will be sprun open slightlyand will then snap into thespace which itfinally occupies and from whi'o'h'it cannot be removed'withoutwithdrawing thejo'aitridgef I f Theflabove and other features of the"invention and "Benefits afforded thereby will be better u derstood andappreciated from reading the 'fol-- lowingv detailed description of oneeinbociin ent thereof inronn'ection with the accompanying drawin'g,mwhich,

Fig. 1"is a perspective view of a cartridgebelt linkeirihcdying "thein-veii'tion; I ,v v Fig.2 is a rspective view showing ho'tvtwo sectionsof b e'lt are joined'when a'link embodying the invention is used'y'andFig. 3 is "a vie'w in elevation showing portions of two se'cti'onsofbelt joined by my novel lirik; Reierr'ing'now tothedrawing, l'oindicatesgenerally Ea link formed of resilient sheet metal, heavy enough gage tobe quite stifi and able to; withstand the ratherstrongpull to which suchlinks are subjected in normal "use, without stretchin'g or becomingdeforined'sufilciently toin'ter'ie're with the feeding "of thecartridges by the "feeding mechanism embodied in a machine gun; "Similarl'inksare regularly used in the-standard-cartriuge belt used in "calibermachineguns, and ma; chineryfior "their manufacture in "great quantitiesis'availazhle, I n v jThe "illustrated link comprises a pair of coaxialrings and I'll spaced apart, 'as'shown, and con nected byabridge portion16 from the opposite side of which projects a compl'emental central,single ring of a width slightly less "than that of the spaceb'etween therings 12 "and M, the axis of thesingle ring being parallel to 'thatnfthepair." -'I'he'Iiilgs l2 and H are normally held 0566. by theresiliency'of the metal of which the u i; is 'made', but thering 1-4 is-'-of suchsize that when a "cartridge is pushed into 'it'ithe ringbeexpallded *sli'gll'tlyfs'othalt it will grip the case firmly, leavinga slight gap in the ring, as shown at I8 in Fig. 2. The ring 12 issmaller than the diameter, slightly greater than that of'the ring I4,that it fits quite loosely upon the cartridge case in the space betweenthe rings I2 and I4 of another link. Such central rings are shown at 20in Figs. 2 and 3.

When connecting two sections of. beltmadeup V with regulation links, itis the practice to fit the. I

single ring 20 at the end of one section into the space between therings I2 and I4 at one end of, the other section, and then, whileholding the three rings in alignment, to force a cartridge through allthree, thus effecting the connection. As heretofore explained, thisoperation is sometimes difllcult and, when it must be performed duringactive combat, it may consume enough time to allow an enemy target toget out of range. V 1 I According to the present invention, the singlering, illustrated at 22, is, not closed but is formed to provide a;tapered slot 24 of suflicient width to permit the passage of theconnecting neck portion .26 of another link therethrough. The ring I2 is,small enough to pass bodily through the ring 22, while this connectingneck portion'traverses the slot 24. The slot 24 is so formed and taperedthat the neck portion 26 of a regulation link will enter the wide end ofthe slot readily, but, will not pass through and emerge from the narrowend of the slot without the exertion of .suflicient force upon it tospring the ring 22 open slightly, with the result thatfwhen the ring 22passes into thespace between therings I2 and I4 of the other link itwill snap back to its original size, and the corner 28 at the narrow,end of the slot in the ring 22 will prevent relative movement of the twolinks in one direction, while 'engagernent of the ring 22 with the ringI4 of the other link will prevent such. movement in the other direction,a permanent, interlocking relation between the parts being thusestablished.

n assembling a cartridge belt section either regualtion links or mynovel link may be used for all except the last link on the endmos'tcartridge. The cartridges and links are always so assembled that thesingle ring of the last link is empty and projects from the tail end ofthe belt. This last or terminal link must be one embodying the presentinvention, as the link In in 'Fig. 2, where the, cartridges 3 0 and 32are the last two cartridges of one belt section, while the cartridge 34.is'the first one of another section to be joinedthereto. In order tojoin the two sections, it is only necessary to grasp andholdthe terminalcartridge 32 with one hand, seize the terminal cartridge 34 of the'freshbelt section with the other hand, and thrust the nose of thelast-mentioned cartridge through the ring 22 until the ring I2 haspassed therethrough and the ring 22 has snapped into' place in the spacebetween the rings I2 and I 4. This operation can easily be performedalmost instantaneouslmin a single motion, and, since it is not necessaryto align and hold two linkelements in exact relationto each other whilea third element is threaded through them, the operation is much lessdifficult and faster than that of connecting two cartridge beltsections. as heretofore practiced, using only regulation llnlm.

If desired, such links as that illustrated and described herein may becolored differently from the regulation links, in order to make it easyto distinguish one from the other quickly. It may, however, be desirableto use only such links as that'shown' in Fig. l in making up the entirecartridge belt, since they can be assembled with the cartridges inexactly the same manner as are the present regulation links, and thereis no difference in the costof manufacture of the two types of links.

.Tests have demonstrated that, although a link, in; which the singlering can be sprung open widely enough to permit the cartridge to besnapped into it sideways, .cannot withstand the pulling force to'whichthe belt is subjected in use without undue stretching, a link having aring formed as disclosed herein, with a relatively narrow slot at 24, isso nearly equal in rigidity and strength to one in which the ring ispractically closed, that there isno noticeable difference in the abilityof the two rings to sustain the pull exerted upon them, without anyresultant detrimental stretching of the belt.

I Having described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired tobe secured by Letters Patent of the United States is: v a

l. A cartridge belt link of resilient material having a central bridgeportion, a pair of rings extending from one side thereof, and a singlering extending from the opposite side thereof, the last named ringhaving atapered slot the wider end of which is sufiiciently wide topermit the ring to be started axially over one of the ring of said pairon an adjacent link and the resiliency of the single ring beingsufficient to permit it to be pushed the remainder of the distancethereover and to snap in between the two rings of the pair.

2. A cartridge belt link of resilient sheet metal comprising a pair ofspaced apartcoaxial, closed rings one of which is large enough to fitthe body portion of a cartridge and the other of which is of a size tofit the smaller, neck portion of said cartridge, and a single ring theaxis of which is spaced from, and parallel to that of the closed rings,said single ring having a tapered slot only the wider end of which iswide enough to" permit the single ring to be started axially over thesmaller of said closed rings of another similar link while the lattercontains a cartridge.

3. Acartridge belt link of resilient material having a central bridgeportion, a pair of spaced apart, coaxial, closed rings extending fromone side thereof, and a single ring extending from the 'opposi'teside'thereof, the circumference of thelast-named ring being broken onlyimmediatelyadjacent to said bridge portion by a narrow tapered slot'onlythe wide end of which is sufficiently wide to permit the ring to bestarted axially. over the neck of one of the closed rings of the pair onan adjacent link containing a cartridge, the resiliency of the singlering being suflicient to permit it to be'pushed the remainder of thedistance thereover and to snap in between the two rings of the pair, andthe narrow end of the slot being sufiiciently narrow to lock the slottedring against removal in the reverse direction thereafter. I

JOHN M. EWART.

